Poor Adherence and Persistence With Biologics for Generalized Pustular Psoriasis

A recent study, published in JAAD International, found that there is poor adherence to and persistence with biologics for generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP), which varied according to the biologic class, database, and patient age.

Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study utilizing data from the US IBM MarketScan Commercial and Optum Clinformatics Data Mart databases from October 1, 2015, to March 31, 2020, to assess adherence and persistence with biologics in patients with GPP.

The study included patients aged 18 years and older with newly diagnosed GPP and at least 1 inpatient or 2 outpatient claims. Results showed that biologics were dispensed to 22% of patients from the MarketScan database and 14% from the Optum database. Adherence, measured by the proportion of days covered (PDC), was suboptimal, with only 36% of patients in MarketScan and 24% in Optum achieving good adherence (PDC ≥ 80%).

Mean persistence, representing the duration of continuous therapy, was similar in both databases, with patients averaging approximately 9 to 10 months on biologic treatment. However, adherence and persistence varied based on biologic class, database, and patient age. Notably, adherence was higher among younger patients aged 18 to 64 years compared to those aged 65 years and older.

“Improving adherence may help improve GPP treatment outcomes,” the authors concluded.

Reference
Feldman SR, Bohn RL, Gao R, et al. Poor adherence to and persistence with biologics in generalized pustular psoriasis: a claim-based study using real-world data from two large US databases. JAAD Int. Published online January 5,2024. doi:10.1016/j.jdin.2023.12.008